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Travel

The world's best beach villas

From serene retreats to glamorous party pads, the world's most beautiful beach villas

Among the Palm House's full-time staff are two masseuses, two Thai chefs, a resident barman and an executive chef. The villa sleeps up to 20, in 10 villas. Price From $5,000 (about £3,100) per night, including breakfast and daily maid service. Contact sjvillas.co.uk.

Just south of Macaroni Beach in Mustique, Sunrise House offers that classic “cocktail” so many seek – seclusion (it is one of the few villas on the island to have its own private beach) but five minutes on a golf-buggy from Basil’s Bar , the island’s social epicentre. Built on several levels, on a forested hillside which descends to a beach, the spacious house is immaculate and decorated in sands, oysters and taupes: a manicured version of the laid-back beach house.

There are four suites in the main part of Sunrise House and a fifth in one of two beach-level cottages; the other contains a kitchen and additional dining space, overlooking a swimming pool and outdoor dining and sunbathing areas. The property sleeps 10 in five bedrooms. Price From £2,665 per night, including seven staff and the use of two petrol-fuelled golf buggies. Contact quintessentiallyvillas.com.

Located on a pristine stretch of the Riviera Maya in Mexico, the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve houses the Casa Ikal beach villa. Set on a five-acre estate, the carbon-neutral house is designed by world-renowned Mexican architects De Yturbe.

It has a large marble-floored living-dining area open to the elements at both ends, long, shaded outdoor lounging terraces and a pool that appears to float in the sky. Casa Ikal costs from £1,764 per night, based on eight sharing, including airport transfers, taxes and all meals, an excursion to the nearby Mayan Canals, one massage per person and all non-alcoholic beverages, private chef, villa manager, butler and cleaners. Minimum stay four nights. Contact Exsus.com

Near Galle in Sri Lanka, the Indisch villa is near a beach popular with leatherback turtles and the iconic stilt fishermen of Sri Lanka's southern coast.

The property is contemporary, but designed to incorporate the best elements of colonial architecture: wide verandas, big balconies, lots of airy space and breezes flowing through a fountain-cooled courtyard. Indisch sleeps 10, in five bedrooms. Price from US$1,000 (£620) per night, including the services of staff. Contact Eden Villas: villasinsrilanka.com)

Devised in 2006 as a sustainable eco-haven, Pambele is set along a stretch of seashore at the Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary in Mozambique . It consists of four villas topped with jekka thatch, and a central lodge with an infinity pool, a bar hewn from an old dhow, an open-sided lounge and an enclosed winter/television room.

Pambele sleeps 14 (10 adults, four children). It costs £3,500 per night, including staff, all meals, transport from Vilanculos airport and the use of 4x4 vehicles and boats (diving and horse riding cost extra). Contact pambele.co.mz.

Between Monaco and Nice, the St Jean Cap Ferrat villa is strikingly modern. With sweeping views across the eastern shore, this very private and stylish property is a white-walls-and-glass creation set in landscaped gardens.

Picture: Marc Berenguer

The property features a hammam, a sauna, an indoor pool (heated, with a reverse current system) and a gym. A lift takes guests down to the wine cellar and up to the top-floor dining and sitting rooms, with 180-degree views. Villa Athina St Jean Cap sleeps 14, in seven bedrooms and costs €5,700 (£4,600) per night, including the services of a maid, gardener and property manager. Contact uniquepropertiesandevents.com

Picture: Marc Berenguer

Guests are in their own secluded world at the extremely chic Tagomago Island villa – for it is not just the property that can be rented, but the entire island. About a mile long and half a mile wide, it lies just off the north coast of Ibiza – the villa’s speedboat can make the transfer in about five minutes.

Picture: Kuhn & Partner 2007

The villa has been designed for maximum outdoor living, with floor-to-ceiling glass walls that slide back, generous terraces set around a large central swimming pool, numerous daybeds and various verandas for fresh-air dining. Tagomago Island sleeps 10 and costs from €17,100 (about £13,800) per night, including all meals, staff, boat transfers to Ibiza (fuel extra) and helicopter transfers for a group of 10 from Ibiza (if staying at the villa for more than seven days). Contact osprivatetravel.com.

Perched high on limestone cliffs in southern Bali, The Edge villa complex is built to take full advantage of its dramatic setting, with jaw-dropping panoramas from every window, and a pool and lounge that look like they are spectacularly suspended over the sea. Designed by the French, Bali-based architect Fredo Taffin and completed in 2010, The Edge is made up of three villas, each with a private plunge pool and living areas.

Although many guests remain in the villa, The Edge is a few miles east of the great cliffside temple of Uluwatu; some of Bali’s best beaches (Padang Padang , Balangan and Bingin ) are five minutes away. The property sleeps 20, in 10 bedrooms and costs £8,350 per night, including breakfast, staff, round-trip airport transfers and a priority processing service at the airport. Contact ampersandtravel.com.

In Corfu, the Estate House inhabits its own beautifully landscaped five-acre private headland, crisscrossed by paths, and has direct sea access and its own jetty. Guests often arrive on their superyachts – it’s that sort of place.

Built of stone in traditional Corfu style, it is a labyrinth of shady courtyards, hand-crafted stone arches, light, airy, classic-contemporary drawing rooms, expansive verandas and swimming pools. The seven bedrooms are all on the cool lower-ground floor and each has a private terrace. The Estate House sleeps 14 in 7 bedrooms (a neighbouring three-bedroom Lodge House can also be taken with it). POA via fivestargreece.com.

Villa Una in Bahia, Brazil, is rustic chic in style, with cool white sofas and bedlinens offset by bright local textiles, woven baskets and antiques. There are three thatched houses – one, for the staff, is tucked away; the other two are right on Una beach.

In the largest villa there are three bedrooms and a spacious living and dining space that expands on to the sand, with sleek, polished-cement floors and a soaring, 30ft-high thatched ceiling. Villa Una sleeps eight, in four bedrooms. It costs from $2,645 (about £1,650) per night, including daily maid service, cook and airport transfers. Find out more via brazilianbeachhouse.com.

The Palm House in Koh Samui, the largest beachfront “villa” in Thailand, is actually a collection of 10 mini-villas, run like an exclusive-use hotel. Right on Koh Samui’s virtually deserted Natien Beach , the property sits within 12 acres of frangipani-filled gardens. Each roomy villa has a private terrace and outdoor rain shower, but life revolves around the clubhouse, a 70ft inky black pool and a large pool house with its own bar and bartender.